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For “Wakulla Springs,” a novella about multiple generations in an African-American family living in a strange place in Florida, Andy Duncan, associate professor of English at Frostburg State University, has won the 2014 World Fantasy Award for Best Novella. The awards, widely considered one of the most prestigious fantasy awards, were given at the World Fantasy Convention on Sunday, Nov. 9, in Arlington, Va.

“It’s just an amazing honor. I can’t get over it,” Duncan said.

“Wakulla Springs,” which Duncan co-wrote with Ellen Klages, is also a finalist for this year’s Hugo, Locus and Nebula writing awards. This is Klages’ first World Fantasy Award and Duncan’s third. Duncan previously won in the Collection and Short Fiction categories. His novelette “Close Encounters” won a 2013 Nebula Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has also won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for his novella, “The Chief Designer,” and has been nominated for the Hugo Awards multiple times.

The World Fantasy Awards are voted on by a panel of judges that changes every year as well as by the previous year’s convention members. In the 40-year history of the World Fantasy Awards, Duncan is only the eighth person to win three or more times in the fiction-writing categories (Short Fiction, Novella, Collection and Novel).

“Wakulla Springs” is different from other nominees and winners of the World Fantasy Awards in that it is not fantasy in the traditional sense. Fantastic elements in most fantasy fiction are obvious, like witchcraft in the “Harry Potter” series, but are less so in “Wakulla Springs.”

“The monster never comes out of the woods,” Duncan said. “It’s about the magical worlds and monsters we create for ourselves.” Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor of Tor.com, the online science fiction magazine that published the novella in October of 2013, calls the story “American Magic Realism.”

Situated in the mountains of Allegany County, Frostburg State University is one of the 12 institutions of the University System of Maryland. FSU is a comprehensive, residential regional university and serves as an educational and cultural center for Western Maryland. For more information, visit www.frostburg.edu or facebook.com/frostburgstateuniversity. Follow FSU on Twitter @frostburgstate.